Against All Odds, the Sequel to M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable and Split Is Now a Real Movie That's in Production

The M. Night-aissance (or whatever the kids are calling it) is about to face its toughest test yet. Ever since someone agreed to give M. Night Shyamalan a minimal amount of money to make another movie hot off the heels of fucking After Earth, he's done a pretty good job of making it count. Mostly by sticking to small, dark, nasty stories: The Visit was so fun, you guys, and Split was thrilling, if a little overshadowed by the return of yet another big M. Night twist.

Now the twist, that Split is set in the same fictional universe as Unbreakable and acts as a de facto super-villain origin story, is about to get its own movie. We've known aboutGlass, the title for the film, for a while now, but now that shooting has actually started on the thing, a big, looming question remains: What the hell?

There's no question this movie could go either way. Shyamalan has thrived ever since tightening his focus and aiming for good old-fashioned thrills, but his return to blockbuster filmmaking is something of a risk. Does anyone want an Unbreakable sequel? Is Shyamalan banking on the homogenous, yawn-inducing upcoming superhero movie slate from Marvel and DC helping his scrappy ode to comic books, stand out?

In any case, Glass is going to be unlike any superhero film we've seen before, and that includes its two predecessors. James McAvoy's performance as Kevin Wendall Crumb in Split was a high for his career, but the heavier genre vibe sure to be in the sequel, along with a fleshed-out supporting cast, might smother a lot of what made Split so special. That's not to say we shouldn't be thrilled at the returns of Bruce Willis, Anya Taylor-Joy, or Samuel L. Jackson (who, please, for the love of God, has to wear that hilarious shitty wig again), but that Glass is a riskier prospect than Shyamalan's put his name to since The Last Airbender. And we all know how that turned out.

Glass is out on January 18, 2019. Good luck to it.

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